Atheist Nexus2015-03-03T19:28:59ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyShttp://api.ning.com:80/files/9zuBLYRbBmp2n6Sl7pmav9GaBBgXLF3EwhOa8gDG7O5oufChM376tKRhVWM66o460jOzfEbJXVFjufboAfcltu7EY-cj2gyf/849632406.jpeg?xgip=2%3A0%3A310%3A310%3B%3B&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.atheistnexus.org/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=justice-for-all&user=2wcz6rbxzwk5t&feed=yes&xn_auth=noOn Burying the Torture Reporttag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-12-08:2182797:Topic:25176512014-12-08T15:01:06.793ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/">http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/</a></p>
<blockquote><p>It may be the worst, and the most cynical attempt to put a story out with the Friday trash that I've ever seen -- and, if my suspicions, and those of a number of other people, are true, and this administration is trying to run out the clock, knowing that the new and more radically conservative Senate will bury the torture report forever, then that may be the worst, and the…</p>
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<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/">http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/</a></p>
<blockquote><p>It may be the worst, and the most cynical attempt to put a story out with the Friday trash that I've ever seen -- and, if my suspicions, and those of a number of other people, are true, and this administration is trying to run out the clock, knowing that the new and more radically conservative Senate will bury the torture report forever, then that may be the worst, and the most cynical, political strategy I've ever seen.The word "Nixonian" would be inadequate, and I never thought I'd say that as regards to cynical political maneuvering.</p>
</blockquote> Supreme Court increasingly accepting unverified "facts" from amicus briefstag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-09-02:2182797:Topic:24690372014-09-02T17:27:47.238ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p><a href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/bdG71GPfFwED96pDBuBs-7qErds8iQESxg77yK2qYU3nNXIVgQZhxhq3epNu6B2pQCCEfxuUxARWlN18rLjVRuo-ZR00xQJ7/RobertsCourtSCOTUS2010wikipedia.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/bdG71GPfFwED96pDBuBs-7qErds8iQESxg77yK2qYU3nNXIVgQZhxhq3epNu6B2pQCCEfxuUxARWlN18rLjVRuo-ZR00xQJ7/RobertsCourtSCOTUS2010wikipedia.jpg" width="375"></img></a> According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/us/politics/the-dubious-sources-of-some-supreme-court-facts.html?_r=2" target="_blank">this disturbing NYTimes piece</a>, the Supreme Court of the United States is increasingly accepting "facts" claimed in amicus briefs at face…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://api.ning.com:80/files/bdG71GPfFwED96pDBuBs-7qErds8iQESxg77yK2qYU3nNXIVgQZhxhq3epNu6B2pQCCEfxuUxARWlN18rLjVRuo-ZR00xQJ7/RobertsCourtSCOTUS2010wikipedia.jpg"><img class="align-right" src="http://api.ning.com:80/files/bdG71GPfFwED96pDBuBs-7qErds8iQESxg77yK2qYU3nNXIVgQZhxhq3epNu6B2pQCCEfxuUxARWlN18rLjVRuo-ZR00xQJ7/RobertsCourtSCOTUS2010wikipedia.jpg" width="375"/></a>According to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/us/politics/the-dubious-sources-of-some-supreme-court-facts.html?_r=2" target="_blank">this disturbing NYTimes piece</a>, the Supreme Court of the United States is increasingly accepting "facts" claimed in amicus briefs at face value.</p>
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<p><em><strong><span class="font-size-3">Seeking Facts, Justices Settle for What Briefs Tell Them</span></strong></em></p>
<p><span class="font-size-1">By ADAM LIPTAK SEPT. 1, 2014</span></p>
<p>... “The court is inundated with 11th-hour, untested, advocacy-motivated claims of factual expertise,” [law professor Allison Orr Larsen] wrote in <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2409071" target="_blank">an article</a> to be published in The Virginia Law Review.</p>
<p><strong>Some of the factual assertions in recent amicus briefs would not pass muster in a high school research paper</strong>.... Recent opinions have cited “facts” from amicus briefs that were backed up by blog posts, emails or nothing at all....</p>
<p>Some “studies” presented in amicus briefs were paid for or conducted by the group that submitted the brief and published only on the Internet. <strong>Some studies seem to have been created for the purpose of influencing the Supreme Court.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Yet the justices are quite receptive to this dodgy data.</strong> Over the five terms from 2008 to 2013, the court’s opinions cited factual assertions from amicus briefs 124 times, Professor Larsen found.... she was struck by how often justices cited the amicus briefs themselves as sources of authority....</p>
<p>“The Supreme Court has the same problem that the rest of us do: figuring out how to distinguish between real facts and Internet facts,” [lawyer Kannon K. Shanmugam] said. “Amicus briefs from unreliable sources can contribute to that problem.”</p>
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<p><em>(Heavily snipped; ellipses and emphases mine. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/us/politics/the-dubious-sources-of-some-supreme-court-facts.html?_r=2" target="_blank">The entire article</a> is at nytimes.com.)</em></p> Black Panictag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-08-23:2182797:Topic:24634862014-08-23T04:06:43.783ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p>The "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_panic_defense" target="_blank">Gay Panic Defense"</a> used to be used in which a presumably straight man was arrested and tried for murder, usually brutal and horrific, of a gay man. The presumption was, the gay man, by making a pass at, or even just looking at, a straight man, aroused such a state of panic, fear, revulsion, that the straight man became temporarily insane, resulting in his bludgeoning or stabbing the gay man to death and…</p>
<p>The "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_panic_defense" target="_blank">Gay Panic Defense"</a> used to be used in which a presumably straight man was arrested and tried for murder, usually brutal and horrific, of a gay man. The presumption was, the gay man, by making a pass at, or even just looking at, a straight man, aroused such a state of panic, fear, revulsion, that the straight man became temporarily insane, resulting in his bludgeoning or stabbing the gay man to death and sometimes with further mutilation. Gay panic was usually enough to get the killer off easily, if not scot free, plus the killer was absolved of the hint that he might have had some same-sex attractions, or initiated the contact.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This concept is relevant here because it feels to me like a permutation of the fear and loathing that results especially in the deaths of young black men at the hands of police (St Louis, Ferguson, NY, and others), and wannabe police dumbfucks (Zimmerman killing Trayvon) or just an asshole (<a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/conviction-on-lesser-counts-in-florida-case-of-black-teen-killed-by-white-man/1852258.html" target="_blank">Michael Dunn</a>). Only instead of "gay panic", it's "black panic". </p>
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<p> </p>
<p>The reason I think this matters is that it's important not just to be repulsed or angered by these events, but also to find ways to move forward. Lives are lost, young lives leaving grieving mothers and fathers. Communities are torn apart with fear and anger. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>It seems to me, the "phobia" or "panic" concept more accurately describes the mental condition, compared to a "racism" concept. I'm no academic, so maybe I'm all off base. But I view racism as being characterized as exploitation, exclusion, land-grabs and job-grabs, demonization and scape-goating, different treatment, and violence, but not necessarily the same as fear and shooting young men in the street. There seems to be a lot of overlap, but the idea of phobia gets closer to this situation. That's in my mind - I don't know of actual evidence. The panic, or phobia is fueled by sensationalist news, pundits, ministers, police, politicians, and others. I think a lot of people love having a boogey man scare them, especially at a distance, but when one gets too close, they get all irrational, pull out their guns and start firing with way excessive force. Or start beating with their fists, as in the California highway cop and the bipolar black woman off her meds. These fears, rather than being fanned, should be addressed with familiarity and empathy. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>That is how gay people have been doing it, and with significant success. They named it - homophobia - and by coming out and becoming familiar in all settings, framing it for what it is, have worked hard on humanizing themselves to everyone else.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I don't know if that analysis would help for what I have seen termed "negrophobia". I'm sorry if the term is offensive - it's the only term I've seen that addresses this point of view. "Black panic" or some entirely different term might be better. The truth is, even though the fear is unreasonable, unfair, unjust, and unthoughtful, that phobia is present in police, homeowners, and other people, who then are influenced into acts of extreme violence. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>That to me is why black defendants are <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/30/770501/study-black-defendants-are-at-least-30-more-likely-to-be-imprisoned-than-white-defendants-for-the-same-crime/" target="_blank">30% more likely</a> to be imprisoned for the same crime, compared to white; black Americans <a href="http://www.allgov.com/news/top-stories/black-americans-given-longer-sentences-than-white-americans-for-same-crimes?news=843984" target="_blank">are given longer sentences</a> than white, and <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/08/07/3468368/study-white-people-support-harsher-criminal-laws-if-they-think-more-black-people-are-arrested/" target="_blank">white people support harsher penalties if</a> they think more black people are arrested. It's not a plot to avoid competition for jobs, a land grab, or a money grab - all of which can result. It's a visceral fear that needs to be acknowledged, outed, discussed, and neutralized. I don't know how. A starting place might be, in this context, to drop the loaded, sometimes overused, sometimes misapplied, term "racism", and to use a more specific and fresher terminology. Some people are proud of their racism. It's also used as "You are" "am not" "are too" "am not". People might less proud to be called fearful, phobic, in a panic. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>This is intended to be respectful, and thoughtful. I hope responses, if any, acknowledge that respect, are the same.</p>
<p> </p> end of capital punishment in Britaintag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-08-22:2182797:Topic:24634542014-08-22T23:41:46.845ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
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</p> African leaders declare they're immune from prosecutiontag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-07-26:2182797:Topic:24513312014-07-26T03:11:28.911ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/african-leaders-vote-for-immunity-is-sending-a-cynical-message" target="_blank">African Leaders’ Vote for Immunity Is Sending a Cynical Message</a></p>
<p>African leaders declard themselves immune to prosecution for <span style="background-color: initial;">war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the proposed African Court of Justice.…</span></p>
<blockquote><p></p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://news.vice.com/article/african-leaders-vote-for-immunity-is-sending-a-cynical-message" target="_blank">African Leaders’ Vote for Immunity Is Sending a Cynical Message</a></p>
<p>African leaders declard themselves immune to prosecution for <span style="background-color: initial;">war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the proposed African Court of Justice.</span></p>
<blockquote><p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/au-summit-decision-backward-step-international-justice-2014-07-01">The move</a> was made at last week’s African Union (AU) summit in Equatorial Guinea to alter the protocols of the proposed African Court of Justice (ACJ ) in order to offer immunity to all sitting heads of state and “high level officials.”</p>
<p>... <span style="background-color: initial;">African ... heads of state and top administrators cannot be prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">In recent years, AU members have accused the International Criminal Court (ICC) of disproportionately targeting Africans for prosecution, and the ACJ is intended in part to prove the continent can enforce justice and human rights on its own. Immunity essentially undermines that premise.</span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">The meeting was capped by a rousing ovation for newly elected Egyptian president Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, whose government recently confirmed death sentences for 183 members of the Muslim Brotherhood.Though the AU often projects itself and is frequently reported as a singular voice, the vote reflected a concerted push on the part of a minority of leaders, two of whom have been charged by the ICC. Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta has been accused of fomenting ethnic violence that marred the 2007 elections, and Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has been <a target="_blank" href="http://www.icc-cpi.int/en_menus/icc/situations%20and%20cases/situations/situation%20icc%200205/press%20releases/Pages/a.aspx">charged</a> with orchestrating genocide in Darfur. <span style="background-color: initial;">Both angled to weaken the African court's ability to pursue heads of state...</span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;"><span style="background-color: initial;">Several others, including South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, both accused of orchestrating human rights violations — albeit not charged — would likely be heartened by the change in protocol. Ethiopia is said to have used its sway to help pass the provision.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;"><span style="background-color: initial;">The provision flies in the face of recent efforts in countries across the continent, says Relva. Several nations, including South Africa, Burkina Faso, and the Comoros have all passed laws clamping down on immunity for human rights violators.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;"><span style="background-color: initial;">... a cynical message to Africans ... The ACJ hasn’t even been created yet, ...</span></span></p>
<p></p>
<p>“Under conventional law, heads of state and heads of government do not enjoy immunity with regard to crimes at the international level,” said Relva.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Since its founding in 2002, the ICC has only prosecuted Africans, a fact often cited to explain the unease among some leaders, many of whom were initially the court’s strongest supporters. But of the eight cases it’s taken up, half have been referred by African countries themselves. The case against Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, for instance, was taken up on request from Uganda.</p>
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<p></p> Harsher sentences increase crimetag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-06-27:2182797:Topic:24396482014-06-27T17:18:34.597ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p><a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/06/prison-contagious?rss=1" target="_blank">Is prison contagious?</a></p>
<p>Both recidivism and incarceration among the inmate's family increase as prison sentences get longer. The different incarceration rates between blacks and whites in the US is explained by the longer sentences given blacks for the same offense. In effect, the judges and juries are causing this discrepancy.</p>
<blockquote><p>Social scientists have long observed that…</p>
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<p><a href="http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/06/prison-contagious?rss=1" target="_blank">Is prison contagious?</a></p>
<p>Both recidivism and incarceration among the inmate's family increase as prison sentences get longer. The different incarceration rates between blacks and whites in the US is explained by the longer sentences given blacks for the same offense. In effect, the judges and juries are causing this discrepancy.</p>
<blockquote><p>Social scientists have long observed that imprisonment behaves like a contagious disease, ... Studies show that those close to an incarcerated person are more likely to become imprisoned themselves.</p>
<p>"According to our model, the tipping point is somewhere between the 14- and 17-month sentences," Lum says. "Below that point, incarceration won't take off and reach high levels in the population, and above that point, it will."</p>
<p>"Under this model, small increases in sentence length led to large differences in the rate of incarceration regardless of race. That means harsher sentencing policy may have the unintended consequence of increasing crime, rather than reducing it.”</p>
</blockquote> Environmental Activist Hit Liststag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-06-17:2182797:Topic:24364322014-06-17T18:23:46.821ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/dying-to-save-amazonian-rainforest-brazil?utm_content=buffer392f1&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">Dying to save the Amazonian rainforest</a></p>
<p>As the fight over scarce resources escalates, justice systems ignore organized violence against environmental activists. In Brazil one environmental activist is murdered per week.…</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"></p>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/15/dying-to-save-amazonian-rainforest-brazil?utm_content=buffer392f1&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">Dying to save the Amazonian rainforest</a></p>
<p>As the fight over scarce resources escalates, justice systems ignore organized violence against environmental activists. In Brazil one environmental activist is murdered per week.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_blank" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/10/1402413933944/Amazonian-activist-Nilcil-011.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/6/10/1402413933944/Amazonian-activist-Nilcil-011.jpg"/></a><span style="color: #666699;"><em><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">Amazonian activist Nilcilene Miguel de Lima staring out of the window of a refuge in Manaus,</span></span></em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666699;"><em><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">Brazil, where she has been in hiding since her friends were murdered</span></span></em></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666699;"><em><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">and she received death threats.</span></span></em></span></p>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">Most of the murders occur in remote regions of the Amazon – places like de Lima's home of Lábrea in Amazonas state, <strong>where loggers, ranchers and land-grabbers are seizing property from smallholders, subsistence communities and indigenous tribes. Guns and muscle make the rules. Police are usually either absent, complicit or too weak to deal with the gangs of armed <a href="http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grileiro" title=""><em>grileiros</em></a>. The ethical consequences are immense.</strong></span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;">... <strong>Lábrea is among the most</strong> remote, dangerous and <strong>important frontlines of environmental protection on the planet.</strong> Whether fighting <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-change" title="More from the Guardian on Climate change">climate change</a> or conserving biodiversity, there are few more pressing struggles in the world than the one taking place here. Yet it rarely gets much attention in Brazil, let alone the rest of the world. The stage i<strong>s too distant, the drama plays out too slowly and the economic interests are weighed against the activists</strong>, who are often accused by their enemies of holding back development.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"></p>
<p>"There is no justice in Brazil. My house has been burned. I have been beaten. My family has been threatened. My friends have been raped and killed by loggers. Yet no one has been punished. I've begged for justice, but <strong><span class="font-size-3">there is no justice</span></strong> in Brazil. We've all been abandoned by the state."</p>
<p>Antônio Vasconcelos ... was a key figure in the creation of the reserves and has long been a target of opponents led by the former mayor of Lábrea, Gean Campos Barros.</p>
<p>"I'm terrified. I feel my life is in danger. I feel completely insecure," he says. "Whenever I hear someone approaching, I fear it could be someone coming for me."</p>
<p>Several years ago, his name was found on <strong>a hit-list of community activists</strong>. When two of the others on the list – Zé Cláudio and Adelino Ramos – were murdered, the government provided round-the-clock protection. For three years, Vasconcelos lived with 13 police officers. "It didn't stop the threats," he says. "Every night someone would call to say they had a bullet not only for me, but for each of my guards."</p>
<p>Such fears have not stopped him campaigning against illegal loggers, farmers and plans for hydroelectric dams.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="inline wide"><span class="caption" style="width: 460px;"><strong>This reflects a global trend, according to Global Witness</strong>. [emphasis mine]</span></span></p>
</blockquote> Coal Ash contaminated water jail coveruptag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-05-26:2182797:Topic:24282412014-05-26T20:15:41.600ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3439864/the-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-an-overcrowded-west-virigina-jail-after-the-chemical-spill/" target="_blank">The Untold Story Of What Happened At An Overcrowded West Virginia Jail After The Chemical Spill</a></p>
<p>When the coal ash spill contaminated water in January, Charleston inmates were forced to use contaminated water. Official denials were later exposed.</p>
<blockquote><p>When roughly 10,000 gallons of chemicals…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/05/21/3439864/the-untold-story-of-what-happened-at-an-overcrowded-west-virigina-jail-after-the-chemical-spill/" target="_blank">The Untold Story Of What Happened At An Overcrowded West Virginia Jail After The Chemical Spill</a></p>
<p>When the coal ash spill contaminated water in January, Charleston inmates were forced to use contaminated water. Official denials were later exposed.</p>
<blockquote><p>When roughly 10,000 gallons of chemicals leaked into a West Virginia watershed this January, ..., there was one group that many forgot: the 429 prisoners locked in Charleston’s overcrowded jail, who were entirely dependent on the state to provide them clean water.</p>
<p>The only article that looked at the spill’s impact on inmates was a <a href="http://www.charlestondailymail.com/News/Kanawha/201403160148">small, glowing report</a> published two months later in the Charleston Daily Mail. Jail officials trumpeted their success at “protecting” inmates by providing a “plentiful supply of bottled water.”</p>
<p>“We got three 8 oz. jugs of water a day. I don’t think that’s enough water. We thought we was going to pass out,” said former inmate Perry Changes, who was transferred out of South Central in February.</p>
<p>Documents obtained by ThinkProgress show guards were only told to provide inmates with four 8-oz. servings of water a day. After inmates complained, officials decided five servings should be “sufficient,” according to internal emails. A heavily-redacted jail log shows flushing occurred in a single day, not three.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.iom.edu/%7E/media/Files/Activity%20Files/Nutrition/DRIs/DRI_Electrolytes_Water.pdf">guidelines from the Institute of Medicine</a>, men over 19 years old should be drinking roughly 100 oz. of water a day (over three-quarters of a gallon) to stay hydrated. Women need around 73 oz. (over half a gallon) a day.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/EDITED_waterbottle_graphic-091.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/EDITED_waterbottle_graphic-091.jpg"/></a></p>
<p>Inmates said they had a choice: They could drink the sweet-tasting water that might make them sick. Or they could deal with the inevitable drain of severe dehydration.</p>
<p>While the jail initially said there had been no health concerns, multiple inmates say they suffered problems ranging from minor rashes to respiratory infections and fainting spells. Prisoners also described a policy implemented after the spill, which could land someone in solitary confinement for asking to see a nurse too many times.</p>
</blockquote> "White Guilt" by Shelby Steeletag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-05-15:2182797:Topic:24236742014-05-15T15:40:16.596ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p>I read this book because I've seen so much of "white guilt". Actually I would call it "white shame". Guilt is about something that was done, shame is about who you are. Shelby Steele is right that being white came to be associated with evil - imperialism and oppression of other races. This is so true that people are hardly ever described as "white" in a positive way. Either their whiteness is taken for granted, or "white" is pejorative, as in "novels by dead white men" . So the bad…</p>
<p>I read this book because I've seen so much of "white guilt". Actually I would call it "white shame". Guilt is about something that was done, shame is about who you are. Shelby Steele is right that being white came to be associated with evil - imperialism and oppression of other races. This is so true that people are hardly ever described as "white" in a positive way. Either their whiteness is taken for granted, or "white" is pejorative, as in "novels by dead white men" . So the bad actions of past white people were the source of the shame of present white people. I don't feel guilty about things my ancestors or other white people did, but I have experienced that sense of moral deficit, of not having the right to my own perspective, that Shelby Steele describes. And I've seen white people so often acting in a similar way around blacks - trying to appease them, not daring to criticize or disagree. <br/> I grew up in an abusive family where my own thoughts were worth nothing, and where I was the target of a lot of hostility. There were no black people around. Then I went off to college in the liberal Los Angeles area in the 70's, and I encountered black people. They generally did have an aggrieved, touchy, unfriendly attitude, quick to presume racism. And I encountered the liberal white culture, where being white was faulty and black people had the moral authority. One could easily be accused of racism. There were black riots in the Los Angeles area, and the newspaper had articles asking "why don't they burn down the white people's houses?" As if the crimes of white people were so great, it was just fine to burn their houses!<br/> Shelby Steele describes this mentality - the license for black people to act badly, the aggrieved mentality, seeing racism everywhere. He talks to black students who claim their university is racist, and asks them what specifically is racist. He says they either can't tell him or they bring up trivial events. <br/> In my experience, black people newly from Africa act differently from American blacks - they act like we both are human beings, rather than being an instance of the race problem in the USA. They're more friendly and more dignified. One black guy living in South Africa said he was absolutely dedicated to studying hard and overcoming every obstacle in understanding math and physics. He didn't seem especially talented, but he was going to make up for that by sheer determination. I haven't heard that attitude from blacks in the USA, it doesn't seem to be very common here. And a black woman from Ghana who I know, owns a salon. She is very disciplined and smart and she works very hard. <br/> So where did this mentality among American blacks come from? Shelby Steele blames it on white guilt, affirmative action and special favors extended to black people. He thinks this attitude is an extension of the attitude towards blacks in slavery - that it insults black people. <br/> If he's right, then blacks would have had a different general attitude before the 60's, which is what he claims. The mentality he describes could also be a hangover from slavery.<br/> "White Guilt" is based on Shelby Steele's personal experience, which may not be typical. He grew up in the pre-civil rights era, when there was gross discrimination and victimization of black people. He feels there is no longer significant racism. But is this because he's biracial - white mother, black father? He's light-skinned and has partly-Caucasian features, so he's probably treated better than dark-skinned blacks with African features. <br/> Another black man, Carl Hart, came from an impoverished inner-city childhood to become a neuroscience researcher at Columbia. He wrote a book High Price. It's about the effects of the War on Drugs on black people, and about how he managed to escape becoming another Criminal Black Man. A lot of luck was involved. <br/> But if you try to impose Shelby Steele's portrait of a black culture of entitlement and grievance onto Carl Hart and his black friends as teenagers in the inner city, it makes little sense. He's talking about the relationship between black people and white people. Carl Hart hardly encountered white people as a kid, so there was no sense of entitlement or dependency. He says they didn't regard the whites they did encounter as human. Carl Hart does say there's a problem with black people not feeling truly part of the mainstream society. <br/> Steele talks a lot about how difficult it is for black people and white people to see each other as human beings. He especially talks about "white blindness". <br/> I like that. I have heard liberals saying that the "we're all people" attitude is deficient - that one also has to take into account what group the person belongs to (race, gender, etc.) This could be taken to imply, "do NOT really see black people as people, pay attention to the race issues". In practice, it often does imply this. Being conscious of racial injustice in general makes white people feel "white shame" around black people, distorts how they relate and does cause "white blindness". <br/> Steele talks about the "dissociation" and "narcissism" of white liberals. These are psychological concepts used inappropriately, just as "white guilt" really isn't guilt (at least in my experience). He thinks that white liberals advocate affirmative action to distance themselves from the racism of white people in the past. So by "dissociation" he really means "distancing". He probably calls it "dissociation" because it sounds more scientific. Similarly "narcissism" has a specific psychological meaning - and has become a pejorative. So he attacks the "belief in the moral superiority of postsixties liberalism" as "a kind of collective narcissism". By that logic, anyone's moral convictions could be narcissism. <br/> He attacks the liberal columnist Maureen Dowd as narcissistic and racist, for a column she wrote about the very conservative black Supreme Court judge Clarence Thomas, for being against affirmative action, when she says he owes his law career and his Supreme Court seat to affirmative action. <br/> But it sounds like he identifies with Clarence Thomas as a conservative black. Steele has surely been smeared as a beneficiary of affirmative action himself. So even though he's at the prestigious Hoover Institution, he doesn't have quite the prestige of the white people there. Conservative blacks are a valuable catch for conservative places like the Hoover Institution, so there's the suspicion that he's there in order to protect conservatives from the charge of racism. After all, conservatives need to distance themselves from racism even more than liberals do. <br/> The discriminated-against groups who affirmative action is intended to benefit, are ambivalent about it, mostly because of the smear that their achievements are fake, their status unmerited. Especially an intelligent, ambitious black man would hate that smear, that likely he can never fully escape. <br/> So how much of Shelby Steele's dislike of affirmative action is because as an intelligent black man, that smear is especially galling to him? Is the same true for Thomas Sowell, another black conservative? Affirmative action, whatever the unfairness, has propelled a lot of black people who don't have special talents into the middle class - with jobs in government, defense contractors, etc. <br/> However, Thomas Sowell makes many good criticisms of welfare, affirmative action etc. He marshals his facts better than Shelby Steele. One of Sowell's arguments is that welfare, affirmative action and minimum wage laws don't help the worst-off black people get out of poverty. <br/> Shelby Steele also brings up black excellence in sports and music to argue that black people can do well without affirmative action. However, the blacks who make it in sports and music have special talents. They are also part of an elite. <br/> Shelby Steele's perspective may also have been distorted by the intense "politcal correctness" that he experienced in a college English department. He describes white academic leftists using white guilt to manipulate others. It's easy to imagine intense jockeying for power among academics, rationalized as caring for minorities. <br/> Shelby Steele does not offer a substitute for affirmative action. Affirmative action is supposed to act as a way to prevent discrimination against blacks. It's very difficult to prove discrimination, so by assigning an overall quota, the government seeks to force non-discrimination. So if affirmative action is rejected, the next question is: what takes its place? <br/> In education, the idea of class-based affirmative action is appealing. People have a lot of disadvantages based on class. If you grew up poor, you probably went to a lower-quality school than someone who grew up with money. You might have had to work at a job while going to school; you might have been chronically stressed. It does make sense to lower the bar for students from bad backgrounds. Class-based affirmative action tends to favor disadvantaged minorities without being explicit about it. If you see a black doctor, do you want to wonder if he isn't as smart as the white doctors, if he got into medical school because he was black?<br/> It's less clear how to prevent discrimination in employment without race-based affirmative action, though. And there probably is a lot of discrimination against blacks in housing, in spite of laws against it. There's no affirmative action in housing, and the result is ugly. Shelby Steele doesn't give ideas to prevent discrimination. <br/> This is an "ideas" book not a "facts" book - sometimes insightful, sometimes very jaundiced. He claims that the purpose of affirmative action is solely to make liberal whites feel less guilty. He doesn't give liberal whites any credit for caring about disadvantaged people. Really? I wonder what he thinks about the Peace Corps or Vista, surely full of liberal whites. <br/> Thomas Sowell has a similar point of view, but he's less prejudiced and more rational. </p> Wealth Redistribution during Climate Crisistag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-04-03:2182797:Topic:24035382014-04-03T04:23:51.303ZTammy Shttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/TammyS
<p>Today I stepped over the line by suggesting that wealth redistribution on a global scale would be necessary to cope with Climate Destabilization.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Complex Systems</strong></p>
<p>I was trying to convince a guy to look at the twin threats of rising inequality to civilization</p>
<p>[<a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/85541/nasa-study-concludes-when-civilization-will-end-and-it-s-not-looking-good-for-us" target="_blank">NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will…</a></p>
<p>Today I stepped over the line by suggesting that wealth redistribution on a global scale would be necessary to cope with Climate Destabilization.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Complex Systems</strong></p>
<p>I was trying to convince a guy to look at the twin threats of rising inequality to civilization</p>
<p>[<a href="http://www.policymic.com/articles/85541/nasa-study-concludes-when-civilization-will-end-and-it-s-not-looking-good-for-us" target="_blank">NASA Study Concludes When Civilization Will End, And It's Not Looking Good for Us</a>]</p>
<p>and Climate Destabilization</p>
<p>[<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/18/climate-change-world-risk-irreversible-changes-scientists-aaas" target="_blank">Climate change is putting world at risk of irreversible changes, scientists warn</a>]</p>
<p>as symptoms of an emergent complex system.</p>
<p>Just as flock behavior emerges from individual birds optimizing their personal space, complex behaviors can emerge from interacting components in human society. There's no need for intention, or conspiracy, to explain an emergent complex system. No individual has to <em>want</em> civilization to collapse or the planet to become uninhabitable. Many institutions and individuals, each maximizing their personal wealth and power, can form an emergent complex system that simply has that collective result.</p>
<p>In particular I see it as the kind of complex system where <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140320140740.htm" target="_blank">it's hard to control individual parts of the system in isolation.</a></p>
<p>Interconnected elite power operates through so many channels, that it easily compensates for an activist push in pollution control, global justice, sustainability, population control, political reform, corporate reform, or finance reform. Worthy reform efforts compete, isolated. Meanwhile the 1% "own" the corporations, politics, finance, the courts, and mass media as an interlaced network. This power imbalance is a manifestation of the inequality threatening civilization.</p>
<p>Most activist organizations survive within this structure, including most environment groups. They dare not advocate, nor discuss, replacing the economic and political status quo.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Time is short.</strong> The Arctic is no longer isolated from lower latitudes by a stable Jet Stream. As the Polar Vortex brings unusual cold weather to the US, excess heat invades Siberia and the Arctic Ocean. Sea ice melt has accelerated, methane release has accelerated, and a sudden large methane release has just become more likely. A one gigaton release would decay rapidly, like this.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uTtsR7XcwX4/T6YoMSUo6FI/AAAAAAAACuU/6SdSK2sUOIw/s1600/1Gtofmethanetitle.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uTtsR7XcwX4/T6YoMSUo6FI/AAAAAAAACuU/6SdSK2sUOIw/s1600/1Gtofmethanetitle.jpg"/></a><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/how-much-time-is-there-left-to-act.html" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>However, while it's in the air it dramatically raises local greenhouse warming. This raises the probability of a second large release from increased heating of the most vulnerable locations. Which raises the likelihood of a third such release, etc. Which might look like this.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2RJlBVev8MA/T6YrKbvIrrI/AAAAAAAACug/lFh07-yBfPE/s1600/927455645823.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2RJlBVev8MA/T6YrKbvIrrI/AAAAAAAACug/lFh07-yBfPE/s1600/927455645823.jpg"/></a><a href="http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/p/how-much-time-is-there-left-to-act.html" target="_blank">image source</a></p>
<p>This isn't the only positive feedback that would feel excess local heat. Permafrost on adjacent lands would melt faster, wetlands would release more methane when they warm, and forest fires would become more likely.</p>
<p>The IPCC is a conservative group. They refuse to include data on positive feedbacks like these because they aren't quantified well enough to make precise predictions. We can't know exactly how soon methane will release in Gigaton quantities, or when a first large release will trigger a second, until <em>after</em> it's happened. If they can't measure a process, they just leave it out of their projections.</p>
<p>The 5 Gigatons of Methane currently in the atmosphere is responsible for half of the greenhouse warming we already have. Dr Natalia Shakhova suggests that as much as 5 Gigatons could be suddenly released. Even the IPCC estimates that a sudden methane release could make a 2°C rise happen 15 to 35 years sooner.</p>
<p>We live on a fragile planet now, trembling on the verge of an irreversible sudden change that would render us powerless. Once Arctic methane starts pumping out faster, our CO2 footprint will be swamped.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>How Could We Change Fast Enough?</strong></p>
<p>How can we continue to work within, think within, this death dealing interconnected economic/political/financial/fossil-fuel-based system? Why not at least talk about how to modify it?</p>
<p>Wealth redistribution could support population control, for example by providing a modest retirement stipend to childless couples in developing countries. It could finance solar power worldwide, including poor countries. Wealth was confiscated in the Russian and Chinese Communist Revolutions. Wouldn't Climate Chaos be a greater moral justification? What counts as a reasonable response when your planet's turning against you?</p>
<p>The conversation ended awkwardly. The other guy agreed easily that humanity is at risk. His voice tone suggested that confiscating hoarded wealth from tax sheltered off shore accounts was lunatic. It was as if I'd asked him to consider treason. Take from the rich to give to the poor on <em>that scale</em>, just for humanity to survive? Unthinkable!</p>
<p></p>
<p>[Correction April 7th, 2014]</p>
<p>David Archer at RealClimate (<a href="http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2012/01/an-arctic-methane-worst-case-scenario/" target="_blank">in reply to a comment #6</a>) claims that</p>
<blockquote><p>... the mixing time for the atmosphere is short, about a year for exchange between the hemispheres and much shorter for mixing along latitude circles, shorter than the thermal equilibration time from rising greenhouse gases. So in general the Earth warms and cools as a whole from GHG concentrations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So perhaps local warming accelerating more local warming isn't as much a danger as I thought.</p>